

But at least by setting a passcode for your account, and knowing what to do if you find yourself a victim of SIM swapping, you're prepared.Īnother critical aspect of strong online security is to use a password manager to create and store unique passwords on your behalf. Remember, no matter how many PIN codes or passwords we add to our online accounts, there's still a chance that someone will find a way to break in. If you find transactions that aren't yours, call your bank or visit a branch right away and explain the situation. You'll also want to reach out to your banks and credit card companies, and double-check all of your online accounts to make sure that the perpetrator hasn't changed your passwords or made any fraudulent transactions. With your SIM card deactivated, you won't be able to call from your phone, but at least you'll have the number handy to use on someone else's device. Once someone gains access to your phone number, they'll have access to most of your online accounts.

Put your carrier's number in your phone as a contact:

Here are the customer service numbers for each major carrier. The longer someone has access to your phone number, the more damage they can do. I can't emphasize this enough - do not wait to call. The carrier will help you recover access to your phone number. Once you realize you've lost service on your mobile device, call your carrier immediately and let them know you didn't make the changes. Meaning the bad guy simply needed to call the target's phone number themselves. Even scarier, sometimes the researchers were able to provide phone numbers for incoming calls to the account they want to take over. How do they know those numbers? They tricked the account holder into calling. Researchers were able to pose as account holders who had forgotten their PIN or passcodes, oftentimes providing recent outgoing calls from the target phone number, called by the actual account holder.
